TORONTO — Ricky Ray saw it coming out of training camp. These Toronto Argonauts had a special bond.

They might not have been the biggest, fastest or most heralded. But they had each other’s back.

Ray, who came over from the Edmonton Eskimos in a blockbuster off-season trade, credits GM Jim Barker and rookie head coach Scott Milanovich for choosing the right pieces in assembling what was to become a Grey Cup champion squad.

“Scott and the staff and Jim coming out of training camp didn’t necessarily pick the best most talented guys,” said the veteran quarterback. “They picked guys that were going to be good teammates over some of those guys.

“That’s where it’s got to start with, it’s got to start with the locker-room and how everybody gets along and everybody playing for each other out there. I think that’s been the biggest difference for us.”

Barker says he and Milanovich both believe “it’s not necessarily the 46 best players but it’s the best 46 players.”

“That means the 46 that can work together the best,” the GM said in an interview Monday. “Through the year, we went through players and we did make different moves but it was about finding the right blend of players — of veterans and rookies.”

Milanovich referred to that brotherhood in his pre-game speech Sunday.

“Find strength in your teammates when things gets tough,” he said.

An even-keeled coach who prepares meticulously, Milanovich laid out what was expected. Argos players knew they didn’t have to worry about the changing moods of their head coach or jump through hoops, just execute what they were told.

Barker, meanwhile, said he knew upon acquiring Ray that this team could be special if they made the right moves around him.

“All along I felt we had a great opportunity this year,” he said.

Every pro athlete has a history. And the Argonauts do not have a patent on hard-luck stories. But finding the diamonds in the rough remains a challenge.

“In this league, there’s a lot of football players out there that have stories, there’s reasons why they maybe aren’t first-round picks in the NFL,” said Barker. “Our job is to go out and uncover those and we go across the country looking for those kind of players.”

Giving them a home leads to ties that bind.

“Everybody on this team, you ask them, somewhere they had to overcome something to get to this point,” Ray said prior to Toronto’s 35-22 championship win over the Calgary Stampeders. “We’re a family, we just came together, stuck together and just played great football.”

Building the team took time. But the rewards for the investment in time and research were worth it.

Chad Owens had already found a home with the Argos, who have a history with pint-sized returner-receivers (Pinball Clemons). In 2012, he led the league in receiving, set a pro-football record for all-purpose yards, was named the league’s Most Outstanding Player and scored the first touchdown in the Grey Cup.

In Ray, he had found his quarterback.

Defensive back Pacino Horne was out of football for two years before the Argos plucked him out of arena football in May. He paid the team back by running an interception back for 25 yards and the second TD Sunday.

They found Horne at a camp in Detroit.

In five-foot-nine running back Chad Kackert, Milanovich and Barker saw a player who had a bigger toolbox than former league rushing leader Cory Boyd. Kackert won MVP honours Sunday after rushing for 133 yards and catching passes for another 62.

Defensive back Ahmad Carroll, a former first-round draft pick of the Green Bay Packers, came on board in May after a roller-coaster career that saw him play in the NFL, UFL and AFL. Prior to joining the Argos, his most recent home was the Arizona Rattlers’ Refusal to Report list.

Still it took a while for this recipe for success to take.

Mistakes, penalties and injuries all made for some bumps in the 2012 campaign. And it took time got the team to jell and absorb new offensive and defensive schemes.

Toronto needed to win its last two games just to finish at 9-9.

The Argos came together before the Oct. 27 game against Saskatchewan, according to Kackert. It was the penultimate game of their regular season.

“I think we had a realization before the Saskatchewan game that we had to win or we were going to lose a huge opportunity,” he said. “Thankfully we answered the call there and we’ve been rolling ever since.”